Associated parks:
None
Alternate titles for this post:
"Invasion of the Yellow Busses", or...
"Land of the Shuttered Food Stalls"
We were expecting a fairly non-busy day at the park...no "physics day" was planned, the weather was a little rainy and chilly, and it was a Thursday in May. We arrived at 9:30 and saw the ever-increasing number of school busses arriving. Oh well, it'll be fun anyway, we thought. The list of rides that would not be operating included Ricochet, Splashwater Falls (it's been down all 3 times I've been there), and of course, Deja Vu.
10:00 finally arrived and we headed to the Southwest section of the park. We rode Demon twice (walk-on, stay-on) and noticed that this ride actually had theming (cheesy, but a nice touch nonetheless). Twice was enough after the head-banging on the corkscrew.
On to Raging Bull. 20 minute line, but would be worth the wait if it were 2 hours. What a nice ride!!! Would have been even greater if it hadn't started to rain just before we rode. Raindrops at 70mph feel like darts hitting your eyes. We still had a lot of fun on this one though. Great ride throughout.
We took shelter for awhile in one of the arcades. Sadly, the place was a pit. Being in the arcade business, I could go on and on about everything that was wrong, but the place was filthy, many lights were out, and many games were in various states of playability. We even found one of the rotary prize games that had no prizes in it, not even for display, yet it was still turned on.
Back to the coasters and Viper. I was a little apprehensive at first, seeing the same trains that Mean Streak has, but all fear of spinal realignment was laid to rest after getting on this thing. Another good ride - especially the abundance of headchoppers. The lift chain almost stopping at the top really was interesting and scared most of the people on the train. Nice effect. Then the exit. This exit ramp (and the queue for that matter) are definitely a hike. I think that is the longest exit path I have ever taken!
Hmm, 11:30, time for a quick bite to eat. Hmm, where to eat...that one's closed...ooo, cheese fri..oh wait, it's closed. Well, let's try that...darn- closed. Looking for the elusive open food stand made me want to play a midway game, but most of those were closed too. Found the wacky wire stall open (with an odd wizard face on it). Plunked down my 2 bucks and walked away with the 30 pound stuffed gorilla. Where was I...oh, the food! Finally found a stand open, so we got footlong coneys. Ease up on the chili, guys! The poor hotdog was drowning in runny chili and cheese glop. Mmm, artificial goodness.
We didn't hit too may rides after that. Watched V2 for awhile (having ridden Superman at WoA I figured I'd pass since it had a long line). Tested the seat at Batman, and had to literally get stapled in for the belt to latch - shouldn't have eaten that footlong.
We mosied toward the front and hopped in line for Shockwave. There wouldn't have been a line except for a family that decided to bring the WHOLE family up to the platform, including Grandma and a couple of strollers. It was a moving traffic jam waiting behind the pokey family. They were actually running totally empty trains because no one could get to the platform! I found it odd that most of the other rides in the park are themed and are located in the park, then you have Shockwave which was basically plopped down in a section of the parking lot. Anyway, intense is the word for this one. The speed through the 2 vertical loops was a little extreme basically snapping you through the elements. Not a very enjoyable ride at all. Where's my CAT scan?
We headed for a couple of tame rides before leaving. We hit the 2-story carousel, which was full of screaming middle-school girls who just would not shut-up. To complicate matters, a young squirrel hitched a ride with us on the upper platform. While the ride op tried to figure out what to do, the squirrel proceeded up the horse's pole and climbed onto my wife's leg. It stayed there for a few moments while the middle-school girls where just a screaming and carrying on...then the squirrel decided to go the the edge of the platform and stay there for a couple of minutes. The ride op in a display of futility tried to shoo the rodent away with a broom, but it wouldn't budge. With the girls still carrying on, the ops finally decided to just start the ride. As the carousel passed the platform, the squirrel jumped to safety, much to the delight of the middle-school scream queens. I did get this whole thing caught on tape...
We finally hit the Sky Trek tower. Besides a nice overview of the park, we saw that the school busses easily outnumbered the cars in the parking lot. We finally headed out the gate at about 2:30 to get some rest back in Chicago before we headed to Medieval Times.
All in all, we had fun, despite the throngs of kids (the few rude, ill-behaved ones unfortunately stand out more than the many more who behaved like normal, average teenagers). I was amazed at the many food stands, games, and rides that were closed. But we still had fun on most of the rides that we got on.
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My K'Nex Coasters
Coming to Wyandot Lake in 2003: Sea Dragon's Revenge
*** This post was edited by jimmybob on 5/26/2002. ***
Just out of curiosity, if you have a video capture card, could you get that Columbia Carousel incident into MPEG and post it on the net for us to see? That would be great if you could :)
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Whats more reliable? Deja Vu, or RCT running without a trapper error?
Actually, that's the MO during student days almost anywhere. The kiddies don't carry the kind of cash that keeps many food stands or game booths open. A holiday at the park also means a holiday from the Ritalin or Wellbutrin for a few, it would seem..... and the lines for popular rides are longer than they'd be a week after school's out for summer.
On the other hand, student evenings are usually quite good 'cause many if not most have gone home.
-'Playa
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The CoastaPlaya 100 begins 6/6/02...
*** This post was edited by CoastaPlaya on 5/26/2002. ***
TrBiggar,
I have posted a video at this address: http://jimseward.home.mindspring.com
It comes in two flavors, pokey internet and speedy internet.
Enjoy!
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My K'Nex Coasters
Coming to Wyandot Lake in 2003: Sea Dragon's Revenge
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